[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Consensus and control [was: What is a game? (again)]

[Caliban Darklock]

On 4/10/07, cruise <cruise at casual-tempest.net> wrote:
>
> Have you examples of disruption that aren't "bad" for a game? This is an
> interesting way of classifying gameplay that hadn't occurred to me before.

The consensus may include a means of altering the rules without the
other players' consent. In effect, you consent to a rule that says you
don't have to consent to a rule which will be stated later.

See Calvinball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinball#Calvinball

Cosmic Encounter is another good example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_encounter

> The best demonstration of this, is of course, "life". There are all
> sorts of social memes in effect, sometimes backed up by enforced
> penalties. There's no consesus yet, so why should we expect it in game?

There used to be consensus, because we didn't used to play with people
on the opposite side of the world. Most tribal hunter-gatherer
cultures have excellent consensus. The more players you have, the less
likely you are to have full consensus over the entire game. You are
instead managing a collection of subgames.